All of this led people to believe he was a one off, a freak of nature who did not feel cold in the same way other people did. At one point, he held 26 separate individual Guinness world records for extreme human activity, including the furthest swim in ice water, the fastest half marathon barefoot on snow and the longest time in direct full body contact with ice. I first encountered Wim and his antics when I watched a documentary exploring his seemingly humanly impossible feats. One such individual is a 60-year-old Dutch man called Wim Hof, also known as the Iceman due to his infinity with all things cold. I often seek out examples of individuals or groups who push things to the limits. When considering how a performance piece involving the body might exist, I think about this combination of extreme physical and mental activity. The effort required to achieve and maintain these extreme bodies is almost incomprehensible. The combination of mental dedication and physical effort demonstrated by bodybuilders is the main reason I have continued to stay interested in it. This shift in my practice is what prompted my application for the Engine Micro Bursary and to give me the opportunity to kick start this new chapter of research and development. In 2018 I decided that it was time to consider making the unseen, seen, and that I would begin to develop a piece of live or recorded performance work. When presenting my finished works for exhibition I would describe the process of making them as ‘unseen performances’, to reference the physicality involved in their production. The process of making my work will also often connect to some of the activities involved in extreme bodybuilding (repetitive actions, physical pressure etc.). Within my practice, I have referenced these extreme bodies and the activity itself in many ways, most recently in the form of abstracted painting or sculptural objects.
I like to imagine how that parallels the art world and the production of art works. There is no reward for how much weight an individual can lift or how quickly they can run, in this world, the only thing that is important is how they look at the end, the appearance of the end ‘product’. One thing that continues to resonate with me is the fact that this group of individuals push their body to the absolute extreme, solely for aesthetic purposes. I spent quite a lot of time learning about the rites and rituals involved in this extreme activity. This interest bordered on an obsession when I became fascinated by the world of extreme male bodybuilding back in 2013. 2015Īs an artist I have always been interested in the human body, not necessarily as a figure to be drawn, painted or sculpted but as a subject to be examined and referenced. UV Printed image on synthetic latex, wooden dowel.
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